It’s midday on a Wednesday at AllSaints HQ, a former industrial warehouse in London’s East End that, for some three decades, has housed the British premium brand. Designer Aaron Esh, a city native known for his buzzy namesake label, is finalizing almost a year’s worth of work as AllSaints chief creative officer, ahead of the big reveal on September 1. The question is, can Esh make AllSaints cool again?
After wiping the brand’s Instagram account in August, the London-born designer has been dripfeeding his vision for a new AllSaints, with a series of black and white photos introducing himself and his collaborators on the revamp, including art director Jamie Reid, stylist Katy England, and Farfetch’s head of editorial content and creative Matthew Whitehouse, who has worked as editor for free zine The Ram, landing during London Fashion Week as part of the relaunch. Behind the scenes, Esh has bulked up his AllSaints atelier, too, with hires from McQueen, Marni, and Burberry. The result is a highly finished offering of forever pieces that — based on a showroom tour — could be incorporated into both a directional and more prosaic consumer’s wardrobe, all backdropped with a broader brand image rooted in London.
Across the globe, current brand sentiment toward AllSaints varies, a company representative shared. In Asia, the positioning is stronger, and the brand is considered high end. But for many Brits, AllSaints had its heyday during the 2000s and early 2010s, when it was associated with the typical tropes of indie sleaze style — “Jesus Loves” studded belts, military boots, and distressed jeans — as well as the popular youth culture TV series of that era, Skins. Across the rest of the world, it holds a stronger image.
The brand built its foundation in rock ‘n’ roll under founding designers Stuart Trevor and Kait Bolongaro in 1994. In 2005, Trevor sold the brand to fashion entrepreneur Kevin Stanford, who oversaw a major expansion. By 2012, Will Beedle — who joined the company in 2006 as menswear director — was promoted to chief creative director, before stepping down in 2021. Prior to Esh, the brand image was an issue that needed more than band-aid marketing; instead, a fully fledged reset, complete with an update to the brand’s ramskull logo, is taking effect.
“The structure and the systems of the creative team here were really bad,” admits Esh. “But what did that give me? An opportunity to build it.” That means reshaping the design, the social media presence, and the website. At AllSaints, Esh has a 2,000-strong workforce and a trusting CEO, Peter Wood, behind him — a far cry from the skeletal team he runs at his eponymous label, launched in 2022. “It’s a different proposition than a traditional fashion house, but it’s also my first [corporate] job. I’m 35, so in the context of creative directors, I’m a baby. I’m learning on the job,” he adds.
